"It takes a village to raise a child."
African Proverb
Village is central to life for the tribes.
It is here that the ways of Human life are experienced.
Interacting with other characters to use and learn skills.
Introduction to the Huts System
A philosophy is used throughout Charley's Jungle for governing the dynamics of village life.
It is taught by observing the Huts system.
The Huts system is about domestication, which is different from civilization.
Civilization is based on exploiting the Huts system, necessary when one or more Hut gets too big.
Domestication is about sustaining the natural balance of village life. It is about Harmonious Living.
Each Hut has its own specific purpose, governs its own concerns, and interacts with the other Huts in unique ways.
There is an established numeric order to the Huts through which teachings are imparted.
In game terms these are Quests.
Quests involve the character interacting with villagers to solve problems.
The Huts have Quests and more specifically, the relationships between the Huts involve Quests.
Numerics
Energy flows from zero to one through nine and returns to zero.
0. The "Ring" surrounding and encompassing the village.
1. The central open space of the village.
Numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are the different Huts.
Some Huts are complicated and consist of several actual buildings each with its own specialism.
Each Hut provides an essential Life Need.
2. Food. Kitchen. Fire and Water
3. Stores, Crafting, Trade. Material Alchemy
4. Community Hall / School. Air
5. Adult Hut (Shrine, Romance, Alcohol) - A place of different Spirits. Emotional and Mental alchemy. Water, Air & Plants
6. Women's Hut
7. Men's Hut
8. Children's Hut
9. Elders Hut
0. Wholeness. Completion.
Often we describe zero as 'The Compost' because it includes Toilet and Compost necessary for Farming. Earth
It means also 'everything else out there', or simply 'of the Jungle'.
It is taught that our progress through the numbered Huts describe the Journey between the Center and the Horizon, the Start and the Goal.
As well as a number, Huts can each have a symbol assigned to them.
It can be a Totem. It can be a Rune.
These describe the Communities area's of interest and expertise.
When Societies, Guilds, Governments and Corporations form from the Totems/Runes,
it stops being a Community and starts becoming a Civilization.
The Huts are arranged in a circle.
However they are not arranged around the circle in the same order as their numbers.
Huts are arranged into specific placements both for practicality,
and so that the relationships between the Huts can be made sense of in terms of patterns, shapes, rhythms, systems.
The Huts system teaches these patterns through a simple process
of identifying how activities between Huts affects activities between other Huts.
This is taught conceptually and visibly.
This is taught as Quests in the game and its ongoing story.
The Village is a place of orientation.
It contrasts with the wild of the Jungle.
The Huts system and indeed this game is designed to work with this contrast between Village and Jungle.
It is taught as a step by step process until the point where it is recognized that different specialisms are required.
Unique characters and Quests become the Journeys through Life.
The Map of the Village
All villages randomly generated in this game follow the same format.
The specifics eg; size and totem of each Hut, will vary between villages.
The number sequence shown in the diagram always stays the same.
Below is the blueprint for the order in which the numbered Huts are located around the center.
You will notice how polarities (opposites) in balance all add up to 11.
(12 if you include the central balance, the pivot point).
11 represents the left and the right in balance. It is a masonic key.
We study the shapes made by the journey through the numbers in number sequence:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0
This makes a definite shape as we join the dots.
Understanding the concerns of each Hut explain to us why they are located where they are, so that these precise shapes can be made.
We call this the Weave, as direct connections between any two Huts cross over the connection between two other huts.
In Weaving these connections are called Threads. They go either over or under.
The threads crossed on a Journey indicate
a) the factors it is affected by
b) the factors it affects
Every place where threads cross and journeys interconnect, Quests are created and the story develops.
The actions of the player creates either Blockage or Flow.
This structure provides catalyst for Quests and the players activities affect the balance of the village.